I decide to skip the rest of the school day and head home early. I'm not worried about Aunt Clarissa seeing me because she won't get off work until after I'm supposed to be out of school. I drop my stuff in the hallway and head to the kitchen. As I walk over I notice a note on the stand in the hallway. I head over to it and see that Clarissa left me a reminder to pick up the dry cleaning at 4pm. I ball the paper up and throw it in the trash. I grab a bowl from the cabinet then my vanilla bean ice cream from the freezer.

After scooping a few scoops into my bowl, I put the ice cream back then head outside to my hammock. I sit there and swing while eating my ice cream when I hear the doorbell ring. It echoed through the house. I head inside and place my bowl in the sink and go to open the door, when I do I freeze.

"Um, hi." Chris Woods is outside of my door.

"You forgot your purse in Algebra..." He says awkwardly as he hands me my bag. Here's the deal. Me and Chris used to be best friends. Like we did everything together, we learned to ride bikes together, we learned how to blow bubbles with gum together... You get what I'm saying. But then all of a sudden, a few years ago, freshman year, he started hanging out with other people. And soon I was forgotten. I was out of his life. But in a way he was never out of mine. I still have the pencil he gave me in first grade when I didn't have one, and the broken bike when we first tried to learn and went downhill too fast. I have pictures of us all over the house. A few are behind me right now. It was like one minute he was in my life then the next he was gone. But here he is, at my doorstep.

"Thanks." I take it and look away. I move to close the door but he stops me.

"Rebecca, wait." He says and pushes the door open with his hand. "I'm really sorry."

"Yeah well if you were really sorry you wouldn't have left and acted like I never existed. Thanks for that by the way." I look him dead in the eye.

"I'm really sorry. I know I messed up." He looks at me with regret.

"Do you wanna come inside?" I ask after a few awkward moments of silence, my anger slowly fading away.

"Yeah. Sure." He follows me inside.

***

He comes in and sits on the rocking chair, it was always his favorite spot to sit.

"Um... Do you want something to eat or drink...?" I ask, my voice trailing off.

"Yeah sure. I want my usual, please." He smiles. "Unless you've forgotten?"

"Chocolate ice cream with hot fudge and pretzels on the top. Oh and I can't forget the cherry." I grin and walk into the kitchen to get his food. I grab the bowl and set up all the ingredients in alphabetical order.

"You still do that?" I hear Chris's voice behind me and drop the fudge.

"God, Chris, what have I told you about not doing that?" I put a hand to my heart.

"Not to do it. But when have I ever listened?" He chuckles and I giggle. It feels like things never changed between us. But they did.

"Here ya go." I hand him his ice cream. "Oh wait! I forgot the best part." I place a cherry on the top. "Ta da!" I laugh.

"What about yours?" He looks around the kitchen, searching for my own bowl. "Where's your vanilla bean?" He frowns.

"I ate it before you got here." I try and give a smile but it comes out more like a flinch. So in other words, I look constipated

"That's so not fair!" He explains.

"Hey I didn't know you would come over!" I smile. "You should have given me a warning or something." Wait, why isn't he in school...?

"Yeah that would have been a better idea." He laughs, embarrassed.

"Hey why aren't you in school?" I watch as his ears turn pink.

"I saw you upset and everything and you left your purse..." He trails off.

"You already told me that. You could have just come drop it off after school. So why​ didn't you?" This is making no sense to me. He could drop it off later. Why now?

"Well... I don't really want to talk about this right now..." He looks at me, hopeful.

"No, I think we should talk about all of this. I mean your skipping school to hang out with your loser ex best friend and your girlfriend is probably looking for you and will probably be pissed when she finds out you're here. So why are you here?" I set down the drink I had gotten and look his in the eyes.

"I just miss you... I miss my best friend. I miss having ice cream and watching TV with you. I miss your weird sayings that make me laugh my head off." He sits his bowl down. "I miss how you love to eat rice with chopsticks. I miss the funny way that you say 'both' with an L so it sounds like 'bolth'. I miss our Friday night outs when we would go to movies and had to have our parents chaperone us. I miss you, Rebecca. I miss you..." He stares at his hands, looking defeated.

"If you miss me so much then why did it take you 2 years to talk to me after ignoring me and becoming a somebody?" Tears swell in my eyes. "If you miss me then why did you stop talking to me in the first place? Yeah, I was kinda depressed my freshman year. I know that. How would you feel if you had your brother die? And then a few years later have all the rest of your family die except one person. How would you feel if you had NO ONE? Tell me, Chris, what did I do to make you leave me too?" He reaches over and wipes the tears from my cheeks.

"After Ben died I didn't think you wanted to talk to me. You always hide from everyone and we all felt like we lost you. I felt like I lost you. I left because I thought I was making it worse. And what I did was stupid I know. But I didn't want to hurt you. You didn't seem to want me around anymore and I thought it would be easier on you if I wasn't here."

"But I did want you here..." I cry. He pulls me into a hug. He smells like oranges and sunscreen, the way I remember.

"I'm sorry. Please don't hate me. God, Rebecca, I'm so sorry." He rocks me back and forth.

"I don't hate you. I miss you." I look up and meet his eyes.

"I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. You don't have to miss me anymore." He kisses my forehead and pulls me back in.

"Good. Cause it's very tiring after a while." I pull back out of his reach. "Your ice cream is melting." I laugh and wipes the tears away.

"Oh but you have to have some

vanilla bean ice cream now. It'll make ya feel better. Promise." He smiles and wipes his face then grabs his bowl. I get myself some vanilla bean and join him in the living room. We sit side by side on the couch and watch How I Met Your Mother. It's out all time favorite.

After a while I lean into him like I used to and fall asleep with my head on his shoulder, just as I had when we were kids. It's like nothing ever changed. But sadly, as we both know, everything has changed.